Nanya: Further DRAM price hikes coming in 1H 2018

While the pricing of NAND flash memory is going down a bit, the DRAM market is still looking thight. Nanya Technology, one of the smaller Taiwanese memory makers, predicts the price of DRAM will soar further in the first half of this year. Lee Pei-ing, president of Nanya Technology, believes the announced capacity expansions will not be enough to stabilize prices.

The server market remains a strong growth driver for DRAM, as well as the smartphone segment, which will require more memory to support more advanced AI capabilities.

Lee expected market demand for servers to stay strong in 2018 along with the growing establishment of datacenters and applications of 5G and AI (artificial intelligence), which in turn will drive the demand for server-use DRAM.

As AI capability is increasingly applied to high-end smartphones, the DRAM capacity required for smartphone will continue picking up to the 4-6 GB level. And demand for DRAM from such consumer segments as TVs, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, mining devices, and smart voice-assistant devices will also rise steadily in 2018, according to Lee.